arXiv subjects

Li-Qiao Yin

Publications and source records attributed to Li-Qiao Yin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Study of Stability and Consistency of EAS Thermal Neutron Detection at ENDA-64

Introduction:Electron-Neutron Detector Array (ENDA) is designed to measure thermal neutrons produced by hadronic interactions between cosmic ray extensive air showers (EAS) and the surrounding environment as well as electrons around the cores of EAS. ENDA is located within Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). ENDA was expanded from an initial 16 detectors to 64 detectors in April 2023, so called ENDA-64, and has been running alongside LHAASO. The stability and consistency of neutron detection are crucial for laying a solid foundation for subsequent data analysis and physical results. Methods:We obtain the stability by studying variations of event rate and thermal neutron rate in each cluster and the consistency by comparing distribution of number of thermal neutrons between clusters. Additionally, we investigate the specific influences of the rainy and dry seasons, as well as the presence or absence of sand cubes under the detectors, to examine the environmental factors affecting neutron measurement performance. Results:The calibration results indicate good consistency in thermal neutron detection across the clusters, with the maximum inconsistency of 6.85%. The maximum instability of event rate and thermal neutron rate over time are 4.68% and 11.0% respectively. The maximum inconsistency between the clusters without the sand cubes is 18%. The use of sand cubes is effective in protecting the target material from rainwater, and the sand cubes help the cluster to increase collection of neutrons generated by EAS events.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2024

Research on the knee region of cosmic ray by using a novel type of electron-neutron detector array

By accurately measuring composition and energy spectrum of cosmic ray, the origin problem of so called "keen" region (energy > 1 PeV) can be solved. However, up to the present, the results of the spectrum in the knee region obtained by several previous experiments have shown obvious differences, so they cannot give effective evidence for judging the theoretical models on the origin of the knee. Recently, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has reported several major breakthroughs and important results in astro-particle physics field. Relying on its advantages of wide-sky survey, high altitude location and large area detector arrays, the research content of LHAASO experiment mainly includes ultra high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, measurement of cosmic ray spectra in the knee region, searching for dark matter and new phenomena of particle physics at higher energy. The electron and Thermal Neutron detector (EN-Detector) is a new scintillator detector which applies thermal neutron detection technology to measure cosmic ray extensive air shower (EAS). This technology is an extension of LHAASO. The EN-Detector Array (ENDA) can highly efficiently measure thermal neutrons generated by secondary hadrons so called "skeleton" of EAS. In this paper, we perform the optimization of ENDA configuration, and obtain expectations on the ENDA results, including thermal neutron distribution, trigger efficiency and capability of cosmic ray composition separation. The obtained real data results are consistent with those by the Monte Carlo simulation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Expectation on probing the origin of the cosmic ray knee with the LHAASO experiment

The cosmic-ray (CR) knee and the compositions contain abundant information for probing the CR's origin, acceleration and propagation mechanisms, as well as the frontier of the fundamental physics. Realizing that major proposals toward the knee's shape can be divided into two categories: the rigidity-dependent (also Z-dependent) knee and the mass-dependent (also A-dependent) knee, where the former one relates to the acceleration or the propagation mechanisms, and the other one is often associated with the new physics, it is essential to precisely measure the individual compositions. Benefit from the high altitude and hybrid detection methods, the LHAASO experiment has the ability in determining the individual component and brings us an opportunity in discriminating these two models. We test this expected ability of LHAASO from 100 TeV to 10 PeV with 3-year observation. And find the dominant component at the knee is essential to this issue, while much heavier nuclei occupying the knee leads to higher significance. In the analysis, the He-dominant knee under the A-dependent case can be recognized at the significance about 6.6 $σ$, while the P-dominant knee under the Z-dependent case will be classified with 2 $σ$ significance.

astro-ph.HE↗